CLONE WARS ASTROMECH DROIDS

SEASON 3: SECRETS REVEALED

A new season of Clone Wars has finally paid off and delivered some new droids.

Jabba's Palace R2 Unit

The first new droid we see is in episode 304: Sphere of Influence. In the main hall of Jabba's Palace on Tatooine, we briefly glimpse a cool looking R2 unit in the background. It could belong to Jabba, but it could also belong to a bounty hunter or emissary just visiting. Either way, it's a cool new design and not a rehash, which is a good thing. The body looks like it's brown color with white panels and outlines, and its dome is white with black panels and a goldish brown stripe.

Coruscant Astrodroids!

In Clone Wars episode 308: Evil Plans, we are taken on a innocent seeming mission with R2-D2 and C-3PO that takes a dangerous turn with the reemergence of Cad Bane!

In the most memorable sequence of the episode, we follow R2-D2 through the streets of Coruscant into a Droid spa, and see all of the fascinating droids therein!

The first droid we see is very similar to one previously seen during Season 2 cruising the halls of the Jedi Temple.

Next we see an orange R2 unit very similar to one used by Shadow Squadron during the Malevolence Trilogy in the first season both inside and outside the spa.

Lastly, we see an all new droid, an R4 type droid whose dome is colored in two tones of dark grays, with a red band around the bottom. Pretty neat, really. We see it on both the streets of Coruscant, as well as in the spa. Look closely at the image of him on the carousel in the spa, and you can make out a second unit with this coloration on the opposite side from him.

Saesee Tinn's Astromech Droid, R3-D5!!!!!

Episode 320, Citadel Rescue, briefly features three different Jedi Starfighters. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get an angle or image size good enough to post. An intrepid fan, however, did find a large image of Jedi Master Tinn and his astrodroid in their fighter from the episode over at starwars.com. Thank you, Rev! R3-D5 was finally given his name in a 2012 Lego set which also revealed that the other Jedi Fighter in the episode was piloted by Even Piell. Unfortunately, no further info was given about Master Piell's astromech.

ONLINE COMIC DROIDS

As this is the place for official "George Lucas approved" astrodroids, and that there are few places more official than starwars.com, here are your Clone Wars Season 3 online comic astrodroids!

Our first comic astrodroid is an all-white Republic R2 unit with yellow paneling. A very clean look, and what I imagine Dorovia Bold's! droid looked like in Return of the Jedi.

CLONE WARS ASTROMECH DROIDS

SEASON 4: UNTITLED

JEDI ASTROMECHS

Here is a fine blue domed R2 unit with pink panels in an unknown Jedi's fighter. Looks like the blue is very similar to Mace Windu's R8-B7, but with the new flashy highlights.

Barriss Offee's Astromech!

UPDATE! This sequence finally appeared in episode 407: Darkness over Umbara. It shows what appears to be Barriss Offee(!) in a stylish blue fighter, accompanied by her astromech droid, which has a blue dome with pink panels. I think a figure of this droid would look *awesome*. I am really liking two-color domes like this one and Mace Windu's. Thanks to the couple people who wrote in about it, and Daniel in particular who identified the Jedi as Bariss Ofee. Also Note that Barriss's wingman over Umbara is none other than Ahsoka Tano and R7-A7.

Republic Astrodroids

In CW ep. 405, Mercy Mission, during the preparation to launch the mission at the beginning of the ep. we see three different astromech droids. One is an R2-type droid in a Y-Wing and has what looks like pinkish dome panels, one has a green body and green dome panels, and one is an R4 droid with a familiar looking yellow pattern. Good stuff.

In CW ep. 406, we see the same yellow R4 unit briefly again as R2-D2 and C-3PO flee into the hangar bay.

R5-L26!

In episode cw406, Nomad Droids, C-3PO and R2-D2 are seen commandeering a (green!) Y-Wing to escape a doomed Republic Cruiser. In their rush to escape, R2-D2 knocks this astrodroid out of position to board the same ship in the Cruiser's hangar, and probably to his certain doom.

And of course you noticed that R5 here has an "R4" type dome, or you wouldn't be reading this! Yet another blow to one of our favorite naming conventions.

Thanks to Trevor, who found this cool info in the Clone Wars section of starwars.com.

Lastly, here is the wonderful photo collage Dan made of the beautiful green-trimmed R4 droid that R2 bumps away from the Y-Wing before rocketing on board. Nice!

In episode 407, Darkness of Umbara, we get a quick glimpse of this gray R4-type astrodroid in the hangar of a Republic Cruiser. It's just a bit too small to make out many details, but if you compare it to the R4 unit that appeared in episode 308: Evil Plans (at the top of this page), you will see that they look extremely similar. Thanks once again to Daniel for sending in two clear images!

PIRATE ASTROCAPTIVES!

Later in the episode, after being captured by pirates, our heros are brought into a droid fighting arena, where get get an oh-so brief glimpse of a red & white R5 unit. It looks like it has a white dome with red stripes like R5-D4, and its body appears to have a red top half that fades to a white bottom half. Really sweet!

Coruscant R4 Unit!

Seen in Episode 415, Deception, we get a glimpse of this familiar looking yellow-striped R4 unit. You can just see it as the bounty hunter hops into a getaway speeder after being pursued for shooting at Obi-Wan.

R7-D4, Plo Koon's astrodroid

In episode 413, Escape from Kadavo, Plo Koon decides to attempt an unusual starfighter maneuver in which he goes from full forward thrusters to full stop in the blink of a second in order to drop behind his pursuers. R7-D4 dutifully advises Plo on the possible damage he can suffer, as an organic lifeform, in attempting this maneuver, which exerts a force on the body similar to running into a brick wall at 800 miles an hour. Fortunately, the Force is as strong with Plo as piloting skills are with R7, and the tactic works to perfection to position them to shoot down the enemy fighters.

Also of note in this episode is the fact that the Clones are flying new fighters which are not equipped with droid sockets, and thus obviously doomed to failure.

Outer Rim Astrodroids

In episode 420: Bounty, we see Asaijj Ventress flee to a lonely backwater planet in the outer rim. There, she passes by a couple of astromechs before she wanders into a random bar and runs into some members of Boba Fett's mercenary gang.

The first astromech we see is this nifty white R5 droid that has royal blue stripes, who was a fellow passenger with Ms. Ventress on the ship which carried her to the planet. Note that its side vertical panels behind its legs are blue as well.

Next we get a quick glimpse of a green striped R4-type droid passing by. Very similar to the Republic droid R2-D2 bumped to its probable doom earlier in the season.

Last is this nice street view showing us 4 droids at once. Very interestingly, we see what appears to be two of the blue-striped R5s, and two very similar r4 droids, which again appear to be very close in apearance to droids we have seen previously.

Outer Rim Astromechs, Part II

In the last episode of the 4th season of the Clone Wars, episode 422, Revenge, we are treated to glimpses of 3 different astrodroids, all of whose designs we have seen before.

First we return to the very same bar we visited in Bounty, and there we get a quick glimpse of what appears to be R5-P8, from the second season of the Clone Wars, in a bar frequented by Hondo Ohnaka's band of notorious smugglers & brigands.

Raydonian Astromechs

All of the action in episode 422: Revenge occurs on the planet Raydonia, where we see an R5-type droid that appears to look exactly the same as the pair of R5s we just saw in episode 420: Bounty. This blue & white design must be very popular in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Lastly, we see the very sad sight of a yellow colored R4 astromech droid spinning its dome and repeatedly slamming itself into a wall. It's been driven mad by witnessing the slaughter of its family and community, and by its inability to prevent it.

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CLONE WARS ASTROMECH DROIDS

SEASON 5: WHERE ARE ALL THE R3 UNITS ALREADY?!?!?

Ahsoka Tano's R7-A7

Ahsoka's R7-A7 returns! See pic above!

REPUBLIC ASTROMECH DROIDS: FIRST LOOK AT SEASON 5 ASTRODROIDS!

The first details of interest to us have finally been revealed. On August 25, 2012, at Celebration VI, a new 3 minute video trailer was played that showed a story in which the Republic sends no less than 4 astrodroids, led by R2-D2, on a top secret, action packed mission!

UPDATE! I've replaced the poor quality youtube video with an official clip. Here are your new astromechs in detail, with R2-D2 leading the way!

One pink domed R2 with red and/or white/grey panels (looks like design wasn't finalized for some of these scenes), one yellow & white colored R5 in an interesting pattern, and one very industrial looking R4 in a very dirty gray color with yellow highlights and black & yellow (silver in another scene) striping around the top. Great stuff, and you've got to love the pit droid getting some action, as well!

Noticed by Emperor Palpitate over at rebelscum.com. I would love a poster of this!

A great look at what may be the highlight episode of the year for us astrodroid fans!
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R9-D9, Onderon Astrodroid!

In episode 4, we finally see the first astromech droid of season 5. It appears very briefly in the palace, and is a yellow & orange striped R4 type unit whose design we saw a couple times in season 4, and for the first time in season 2.

UPDATE!!!

Long time contributor Daniel F. has sent in a cool image preproduction art that shows what the Onderon R4 was intended to look like. It's a beautiful scheme, and would have looked fantastic amongst the elegance of the palace. I presume they dumped the new design for the previously used one to say time & money. That's really too bad, not just for us droid fans, but for fans generally, since it's details like these that make the Star Wars universe come so alive.

Here's the quote: 'King Rash's astromech droid, R9-D9, was at one point slated to have a unique texture with royal designs, but in the final episode, it ended up identical to the yellow R4-M1 seen in "R2 Come Home." Illustration by Chris Glenn.'

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Hondo's R5-P8, pirate astromech

After disappearing for a season, our favorite blaster equipped astrodroid makes a brief roll-by in Episode 508: Bound for Rescue.

Republic Astrodroids!!!

Also in Bound for Rescue, we see two familiar looking astrodroids on board Obi-Wan Kenobi's Republic Cruiser just before being boarded. They are our old friend R5-013 from the first seasons, and R4-M1 from just a couple episodes ago, but a long way away on Onderon.

Lastly, I'd like to point out the interesting fact that the Y-Wing seen prominently in the episode is flying without an astromech droid in its droid socket. Maybe the pilot had to launch quickly before his droid could get aboard. Probably why he got shot down as well.

It offers a very nice compendium of astrodroids that have appeared in the first 4 season of the Clone Wars show. Typically for Lucasfilm Licensing, we see conflicts in the names of some of these droids with what has been previously released. Or perhaps since some have made more than one appearance in the series, they've gotten different names because they are actually different droids, even though they are otherwise identical in appearance